Crime Against Decency

July 29, 2008

A person has to be pretty desperate to rob a grave. Whoever ransacked a mausoleum in Bloomfield's Mount St. Benedict Cemetery and disturbed the remains in one of its six coffins has committed a contemptible act of disrespect for what it means to be human. It doesn't get much lower than disturbing the peace of a soul long dead.

Police suspect that theft was the motive for the desecration. In desperate times, criminals grow bolder. Nationwide, thieves in many states have been violating the sanctity of cemeteries to steal aboveground artifacts. Mostly, according to reports, they steal bronze urns, plaques and vases to sell as scrap metal.

But the person or people who cut the iron gate to the Guerra/Arcieri burial building and opened a concrete vault to get to the resting place of Marie Arcieri, who died in 1936, went beyond petty thievery. What they did was ghoulish and depraved. With no regard for the dead woman and her family, they pulled the casket from its niche and left her bone fragments scattered about on the mausoleum floor.

What kind of person does this? What were they after to go to such lengths?

Did they take jewelry or gold from the coffin? Was it a sick prank or act of vandalism? These are questions for police to answer. They might start their inquiries with a visit to scrap metal yards.

Grave-robbing was more common in the distant past when corpses were dug up for gold fillings and jewelry, or sold for medical purposes. But today it is an unthinkable violation of decency. The crime leaves us with a sense that there is no sanctuary from danger.

With luck, authorities will solve it and bring the miscreant(s) to justice. It would be tempting to call for tighter criminal codes and more stringent security. But let's not overreact and destroy the peace of sacred places because of an act by an amoral few.